MotoGP: Back-to-back poles for Bagnaia, as Marquez, Quartararo crash in Misano qualifying

The 14th round of the 2021 MotoGP World Championship takes the series to Misano this weekend, for the San Marino and Rimini Riviera Grand Prix. Free practice was a mix of wet and dry conditions, but it was Francesco Bagnaia who topped the combined practice times. 

There was no rain for qualifying on Saturday afternoon. In fact, the conditions were in stark contrast to those of 24 hours before, when MotoGP FP2 took place in the rain. 

In Q1, Honda utilised the attendance of Stefan Bradl on the Team HRC RC213V this weekend to give Marc Marquez a marker. Alex Marquez latched onto the two factory Honda riders with his satellite machine, too, but it was the #93 who made the most use of Bradl’s marker. None of them were able to match Enea Bastianini, who topped Q1, but Marc Marquez, who crashed out in FP3 which ensured his appearance in Q1, was able to finish the first session in second and guarantee his place in the pole position shootout. 

Q2 had a familiar feel about it. After the first runs Fabio Quartararo was on provisional pole position ahead of Francesco Bagnaia, and as the riders went out for their second attempts, Marc Marquez slotted himself in behind Bagnaia, the same place he had been sat for the vast majority of last Sunday’s Grand Prix of Aragon. 

Bagnaia’s first lap of the second run was nothing too special, but it was enough to invite Marquez to push on. He pushed too hard, in fact, and went down at Tramonto, as Takaaki Nakagami had done in Q1. 

The second lap from Bagnaia, though, was stunning, and it put him on pole position by over three tenths of a second from Quartararo, and gave him the lap record. A repeat of last Saturday, then. 

This was confirmed when Jack Miller went second on his final lap of Q2, to match the Ducati 1-2 in qualifying in Aragon, and Fabio Quartararo crashed at turn one on his final flying lap, meaning he will start from third place, just as he did in MotorLand last week. 

Certainly, Bagnaia is in the form of his life, and he looks strong for tomorrow. Perhaps not as strong as Quartararo should it be dry, but with either wets or slicks the #63 Ducati rider has looked capable of featuring right at the front. 

Should it be dry, though, Quartararo will certainly be the favourite. After 16 laps, the Frenchman was able to set a 1:32.197 on a medium rear tyre, whereas with the same number of laps on his preferred soft option rear tyre, Bagnaia was half a second slower. The Italian has a good enough pace for the podium but, as in Silverstone, Quartararo looks to have a strong step on the whole field.

Heading up row two tomorrow will be Jorge Martin, who starts one place ahead of where he was on the grid a week ago in fourth place, alongside his Pramac Ducati teammate Johann Zarco in fifth, while Pol Espargaro completes row two in sixth place. 

Marc Marquez’ qualifying was over with his crash at turn 10 following Bagnaia, so he was limited to seventh place. On row three, Marquez will be joined by Aleix Espargaro and Alex Rins; while Maverick Vinales will start from the front of row four in his second race for Aprilia, alongside Joan Mir and Enea Bastianini on row four. 

Mir was livid with 11th, having been limited by problems with the front of his bike. He had his front tyre changed after his first run, but the problem persisted in his second, but without time he was forced to make do, and the result was 11th. 

Bastianini, on the other hand, had only himself to blame for not starting from the second row, which was his potential. His first flying lap was cancelled for track limits, and on his second he made a mistake at turn 11. With only one run, the Italian could do nothing to improve on 12th.

Takaaki Nakagami was on course to go top of Q1 when he crashed out at turn 10. The Japanese rider will start tomorrow’s race from 13th as a result, alongside Michele Pirro and Luca Marini, whose impressive last lap put him fifth in Q1, on row five. Behind, Franco Morbidelli qualified 16th on his factory Yamaha debut, while Brad Binder was 17th after a crash mid-session. Stefan Bradl will start 18th tomorrow on the back of the sixth row, while Alex Marquez will head up row seven from Iker Lecuona and Miguel Oliveira as KTM’s struggles continue. 

The final row is a familiar all-Italian affair, with all present who populated the 2015 British Grand Prix podium, as Danilo Petrucci starts 22nd ahead of the Petronas Yamaha SRT duo of Valentino Rossi and the returning Andrea Dovizioso, who will start his debut for the team in 24th and last, which realistically was to be expected.